Do you remember?

Perhaps not every good conversation begins with "do you remember when...?" But I know it makes for a good evening the conversations can spin back through the years. We did so much growing up in our twenties, and I love it when Friend and I can catch up.

tLP (still hot but otherwise well) loves it too. Much silliness ensues until bedtime, and then more adult silliness mixes with more sober thoughts; the perfect recipe for a really good evening.

Friend has a new cat; I am so pleased. The perfect cat for an indoor life, and, outstandingly, multiple family offers of help with said cat should Friend ever need to come here in a hurry. Friend is my girls' UnGodly Mother; unwilling to make spiritual promises on their behalf she is nevertheless their replacement parent should anything happen to me. It's great that her extended family recognise this, despite most of them never having met us.

And so we plan for potential future child free weekends. And definite child-filled days. We sit and chat and stroke cats and the Rosé flows, and suddenly it is midnight. And we have crossed continents and learnt not to poke leopards with sticks, and rebuilt the world and despaired over Jerusalem, laughed over our mutual lack of geographical skills and admired the cats, eaten vast quantities of little nibbly nothings,and barely scratched the surface of the catching up which can only really be done in person.

A new job, a shared house, a bunch of strangers thrown together. It could have been disastrous, and I think it probably was in some ways. But out of such things and a love of curry are friendships born. She knew me pre-children; I knew her pre-nursing, and now it doesn't matter if it's been six months or six days since we last spoke; we will always catch up or fast forward over the gap.

Friend is a friend who doesn't read this blog, although she does know about it. So I can sing her praises without embarrassing her. And they are worth singing. But I'm also really rather tired, so I'll shelve the songs for now and sleep in the happy knowledge that our sofa bed has an occupant again and that we have all day tomorrow to continue our conversation, teach Friend how to make scones, and embarrass tLP by being happy grown ups together.

Tia